Phase Diagram and Orientational Order in a Biaxial Lattice Model: A Monte Carlo Study.

We have determined the phase diagram for a lattice system of biaxial particles interacting with a second rank anisotropic potential using Monte Carlo simulations for a number of values of the molecular biaxiality. We find increasing differences from mean field theory as the biaxiality increases. We have also calculated for the first time the full set of second rank biaxial and uniaxial order parameters and their temperature dependence, and on this basis we comment on the difficulties of measuring phase biaxiality by NMR.